RIM Acquires DataViz and Popular Documents To Go App

In the past few days, unofficial news has filled the blogosphere that Research in Motion has acquired DataViz, maker of the popular Documents To Go application. (Read more about DataViz here.) DataViz's flagship product, Documents To Go, lets you view, edit, and send Office documents from your phone, and currently works with Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Palm.

By acquiring DataViz, RIM will be able to provide better (and free) integration between BlackBerry Enterprise Server and DataViz's apps. Currently, DataViz has three apps: Documents To Go, RoadSync (syncing to Exchange for Android), and Password Plus (password security for iOS, Windows Mobile, or Palm). My guess is that RIM/DataViz will continue to offer all of these applications, as it wouldn't make much sense to cut off the company's revenue stream just to hinder other smartphones a bit.

While it's possible that RIM is also interested in something that DataViz is still in the process of working on, the general consensus is that RIM probably wants to integrate Documents To Go with the BlackBerry line, making better Office document management a standard for all newer BlackBerry smartphones. But this is all just speculation for now.

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As long term customers (3 of us in this family), we're trying to look upon this in a positive light hoping the new owners will expand the development and improve customer support. DataViz development has been innovative in the past, but over time became myopic in its product development. This is an outstanding time to expand the horizons of the development team.

It is my hope DataViz and RIM will provide support to customers in migrating from Password Plus to a suitable replacement. Unless, of course, they see the value in continuing to develop (especially for the Android) this extremely useful application.

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